After World War II, with its territory largely unscathed by the fires of
war, America launched the Marshall Plan to restore the shattered
economies of Europe. We supplied raw materials of economic recovery to
nations at risk of a "breakdown of moral, social and commercial life."

Six years ago, before he was President of the Charlotte Lozier
Institute, Chuck Donovan, said that the "breakdown of marriage" in
America calls for a similar visionary response. He urged creating a
"Marshall Plan for Marriage" that could "reverse this decline."

In November, 2010
TIME magazine and the Pew Research Center released a
poll showing that nearly four in 10 Americans think "marriage is
obsolete." There is substantial evidence that assessment is correct:

America's marriage rate has fallen 57% since 1970, from 76.5 marriages
per 1,000 women to only 32.9 per 1,000 in 2010. In 1960 72% of
households were headed by married couples, but that fell to only 48% in
2015.

Only 430,000 couples were cohabiting in 1960, but 19 times as many - 8
million were living together in 2016! That's four times the 2 million
who married.

America's 23% divorce rate after five years of marriage - is triple the
8% of Britain or France. Why? If a British woman wants a divorce, but
her husband does not, they have to wait 5 years for the divorce and 6
years in France. Five or six years allows a lot of time for couples to
reconcile. By contrast, 30 states have a ZERO waiting period!

Four in ten American children are born out-of-wedlock - 20 times Japan's
2% rate. Result: our kids perform poorly academically. On international
math tests, U.S. kids scored at the bottom - 31st out of 31 countries
vs. 8th for Japan.

How could a Marshall Plan for Marriage change these trends?

First, tax
credits should be given to couples who marry - rather than to couples who cohabit.
At
present if a cohabiting couple has a child, the mother gets Medicaid,
food stamps and other benefits worth $25,000 a year, because she is
single. However, she has the benefit of her partner's income as if she
were married. But if she marries him, she loses those benefits.

Second with Obamacare: "Married couples will generally receive $1,500 to
$10,000 less per year in health care premium support than cohabiting
couples with the same combined income," Donovan asserts. Clearly, such
an anti-marriage bias should be removed from the law.

Third, the "Safe and Stable Families Block Grant" of $443 million per
year is supposed to be used for parenting skills training and "to
strengthen parental relationships and promote healthy marriage."
However, in my 31 years of working in this field, I am unaware of any
impact it has had to increase the marriage rate or to reduce the divorce
rate in any state.

Fourth, a broad media campaign promoting marriage can play an important
role. One TV campaign could simply make this statement in 30 seconds:
"Children of divorce and non-marriage are three times more likely to be
expelled from school or to have a child as a teenager as are children
from intact homes, are five times more apt to live in poverty, six times
more likely to commit suicide and 12 times more apt to be incarcerated
than children with married parents according to a Heritage Foundation
study by Pat Fagan and Robert Rector."
That would be a great 30 second ad!

Fifth, states should recognize that a significant percentage of
divorcing couples, especially those with children, would respond to
reconciliation efforts and restore their marriages. For example, 10,000
churches have trained couples whose own marriages once nearly failed -
to mentor those in current crisis, and saved 80% of them, according to
Marriage Savers, that my wife and I lead, which has trained Mentor
Couples in 230 cities.

Sixth, "Finding new and better ways to publicly celebrate and encourage
enduring marriages may be one of the most critical ways that a Marshall
Plan for Marriage could succeed," Donovan suggested.
"For example, civic organizations and churches that once honored or
still honor couples on their 40th or 50th wedding anniversaries might
consider honoring and encouraging married couples on earlier and pivotal
milestones, such as their fifth or 10th anniversaries. Marital Longevity
Day might be linked to National Marriage Week."

Donovan notes that the annual public cost of divorce and unmarried child
bearing range as high as $112 billion. And couples who avoid divorce
save the taxpayer billions.

Let's launch a Marshall Plan for Marriage!___________________________________Copyright (c) 2017 Michael J. McManus,
President of Marriage Savers and a syndicated columnist. For previous
columns go to
www.ethicsandreligion.org. Hit
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